Gustavo Dudamel

Acclaimed worldwide as one of the most exciting and compelling conductors of our time, Gustavo Dudamel began his tenure as Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in autumn 2009, while continuing as Music Director of the Gothenburg Symphony. Dudamel also enters his eleventh year as Music Director of the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela. His infectious energy and exceptional artistry have made him one of the most sought-after conductors by orchestras and opera companies around the world.

Following guest appearances with the Wiener Philharmoniker and the Berliner Philharmoniker, Gustavo Dudamel’s inaugural 2009-10 season as the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Music Director began in October with the concert Bienvenido Gustavo! This free, day-long musical celebration at the Hollywood Bowl for the Los Angeles community culminated with Dudamel leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. On 8 October 2009, Dudamel also led the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the inaugural gala at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, performing the world premiere of John Adams’ City Noir and Mahler’s First Symphony. This concert was broadcast on PBS’s Great Performances throughout the USA on October 21, with subsequent airings throughout the world, and Deutsche Grammophon will be releasing the DVD. Further highlights of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s season include Dudamel directing the Americas and Americans festival, a series of five concerts celebrating the music and shared cultural traditions of North, Central and Latin America, as well as conducting concerts with works ranging from Verdi’s Requiem to highlighting music by composers including Chin, Salonen and Harrison. In May 2010, Dudamel led the Los Angeles Philharmonic on a coast-to-coast of Maerica with performances in San Francisco, Phoenix, Chicago, Nashville, Washington, Philadelphia, New York and New Jersey. With the Gothenburg Symphony, highlights include numerous performances in Sweden as well as tours to Hamburg, Bonn, Amsterdam, Brussels and the Canary Islands. Gustavo Dudamel continues to lead the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra this season, performing in Caracas in Venezuela and on European and Scandinavian-Russian tours.

Gustavo Dudamel has been an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist since 2005. His debut recording of Beethoven’s Fifth and Seventh Symphonies with the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra, was released worldwide in September 2006 and received the 2007 Echo Award (Germany) for New Artist of the Year. His second recording with the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra, Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, was released in May 2007 and was chosen as the only classical album on iTunes’ Next Big Thing. Released in May 2008, Dudamel’s third album with the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra was FIESTA, featuring Latin-American works. In March 2009, Deutsche Grammophon released Dudamel’s most recent recording with the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra featuring Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony and Francesca da Rimini. His DVDs include the 2008 release of The Promise of Music, a documentary and concert with the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra, Birthday Concert for Pope Benedict XVI released in 2007 and the April 2009 DVD Live from Salzburg, featuring performances of Mussorgsky-Ravel’s Pictures at an Exhibition and Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with Martha Argerich, Renaud and Gautier Capuçon, and the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra. On iTunes, Deutsche Grammophon has released Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s recording of Berlioz’ Symphonie fantastique and Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra.

Brought to international attention by triumphing in the inaugural Bamberger Symphoniker Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition in May 2004, Gustavo Dudamel was born in 1981 in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, where he studied violin at the Conservatorio Jacinto Lara with José Luis Jiménez and later with José Francisco del Castillo at the Latin American Academy of Violin. In 1996, he began his conducting studies with Rodolfo Saglimbeni and that same year was named Music Director of the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra. In 1999, along with assuming the post as Music Director of the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra, he began conducting studies with Dr José Antonio Abreu, the Orchestra’s founder. In May 2007, Dudamel was awarded the Premio de la Latinidad, an honour given for outstanding contributions to Latin cultural life. In 2008, the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra was granted Spain’s prestigious annual Prince of the Asturias Award for the Arts, and in 2007 Dudamel received the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Music Award for Young Artists. Along with his mentor José Antonio Abreu, he was granted the 2008 Q Prize from Harvard University for extraordinary service to children. Most recently, in June 2009, he received an honorary doctorate from the Universidad Centro Occidental Lisandro Alvarado in his hometown of Barquisimeto in Venezuela. Gustavo Dudamel was named one of the one hundred most influential people of 2009 by TIME magazine and has been featured twice on CBS’s 60 Minutes.